Feature: Egypt taxi drivers cornered by growing popularity of Uber, Careem services

"This is not fair! We pay taxes and drive taxis, while those of Uber and Careem pay nothing, work instantly and affect our work," said Ahmed Hassan, a 32-year-old Egyptian cab driver in one of Maadi streets southern capital Cairo.

Hassan is only one of hundreds of taxi drivers who are currently suffering the growing popularity of Uber and Careem companies that provide customers with nice cars and professional drivers via user-friendly phone applications.

"Cairo has some 180,000 taxis and we no longer find good customers who request long-distance rides. Those services get all the nice rides and classy customers and left us the street customers who seek short rides for little money," Hassan told Xinhua, noting a taxi driver pays like 40,000 pounds (about 5,000 U.S. dollars) to get a taxi number plate for his vehicle.

Cairo suffered extraordinary traffic jams on Tuesday as dozens of traditional white taxis parked all around Mostafa Mahmoud square in Mohandeseen and blocked traffic in main Gamiat al-Dewal al-Arabia Street. Roads nearby were also affected.

The police had even to use a tear gas bomb to disperse the protesting drivers who argued that the new services pose threats to their living and may increase the country's unemployment rate.

Traffic policeman Khaled Tawfik said that his department had to make road conversions to ease the congestions, calling on taxi drivers to be more patient and accept the competition of the new services and let customers decide.

The policeman told Xinhua that "Uber and Careem are licensed companies that provide qualified competitive services, which shouldn't harm good taxi drivers."

Unlike many taxi drivers, Salah Mahmoud, 52, said the new services including Uber, Careem and Easy Taxi have not affected his work. "Work never stops as long as you provide a good service for customers," the old driver told Xinhua after dropping off a customer in Ramses Square in Cairo.

Some Egyptians complain ill-manners of taxi drivers, such as taking drugs, playing loud music or talking too much during the ride, and their exploitation of customers through improper or broken taximeters that led many customers to resort to other taxi services.

"I have recently started to use Uber after facing trouble with taxi drivers through broken taximeters and changing courses to get more fares," Ismail Gomaa, a man in his 30s, told Xinhua in downtown Cairo.

He added that Uber provides customers with almost new cars and polite, well-dressed drivers. "I can even rate Uber service after each ride," he continued, lamenting that some girls in his family complained of misbehaviors of some traditional taxi drivers.

The protests started in early February with rising demand of such new services.

Samer, a 28-year-old driver of Uber who uses a brand new red Chevrolet Aveo, said that drivers in his company are instructed to treat all customers like car owners and that they pass comprehensive drug tests before allowed to be Uber drivers.

"We never reject a ride like other taxi drivers even if it is to an impoverished neighborhood, and we get off to open the door for the customer regardless of his or her social class," the Uber driver told Xinhua in the Nile Corniche Street in Cairo.

Samer said that he personally knows doctors, engineers and bank accountants who work as Uber drivers and use their new private cars to improve their income. "Uber and suchlike services help provide more job opportunities and fight unemployment," the man argued.

In overcrowded King Faisal Street in Giza province near Cairo, Mohamed Abdel-Na'eem, a 40-year-old technician, just got off a traditional white taxi and said the service was fine and the ride was comfortable.

"It is a matter of offer and demand after all. Having qualified competitors to traditional taxis is all in favor of the customers whose satisfaction will be the target of the competition," he told Xinhua. Endit